Wednesday, April 23, 2008

And the facts reveal......

the elderly flimsy of yesterday, Railroad Crossing was a WIP back in August,2005. Paula's comment made me curious to see when I had pieced it...yikes! Longer than I realized *VBS* About time I finish it up. Here's the skinny on the poor old thing..."Isn't it amazing how fast the scrap bin fills up, and the stash looks the same? I have more 1.5" strips than I thought. And despite an ongoing project with 6.5" log cabin, I still have more than fits in the bin. Mostly colors I don't want in my log cabin top. So, onward to a Railroad crossing block. I'm not fussy exactly that 6 strips(1.5" X 4.5") make a set of rails.I toss in at least one 2" strip, to make sure I end up at 6.5". My rails look more like string quilt piecing. I have alot of yellows, many mid-sized amounts and they fall into the pale yellow catagory. They will became the 6.5" setting blocks and triangles. I have 3 FQ's of star fabric from a sale bin, the challenge is can I get enough 4.5" squares and the HST's I need and keep those all the same? Everything else is scrappy. I love a challenge! I'm following(sort of) the layout in Trudy Hughes book, "On Point". She makes her rails 3.5" X 6.5"...I kind of like the 4.5". Slightly bigger quilt and not any more sewing. Without borders this one is nearly 60" already. A good couch size or whatever it grows up to be.Hope you all have some sunshine today...We've hit the halfway point in February...how are you coming on your Feb. goals???

And this from August, 2005....
The amount of scraps that accumulates staggers me ! A bit of seaching and poking around revealed that I have 4 tall popcorn tins of 1.5" strips.
I have begun a Railroad Crossing quilt that uses 1.5" X 4.5" strips. Sets of 6 make one unit of the "tracks" part. It's using some of the shorter strips and will make a dent in my odd yardages for setting blocks and triangles. I'm shooting for about a twin, so I need 80 sets of "tracks". I hit 40, sewn and trimmed this morning. And I'm almost emptied one popcorn tin..hurray for that!

5 comments:

Magpie Sue said...

I like the narrow border you put on the RR Crossing top. Your idea for piano key borders at the top and bottom sounds like the perfect solution to make it longer. It's going to be a wonderful quilt when it's done!

McIrish Annie said...

Hope your eye is feeling better! You are definitely the epitome of a "green" quilter, using all those scraps :)

Can't wait to see how it looks with the top and bottom piano keys. that gives me an idea for one of my quilts that needs a little length!

Pat at Bell Creek Quilts said...

I like it, Finn! Can't wait to 'see' the piano keys border on it.

Hope your eye is getting better :)

KC Quilter said...

Loving your rail-y strippy quilt. Right now my favorite quilts are couch quilts--love to wrap up in one with a cat on top! Sure hope your eye is better today.

Granny Lyn said...

I sooooo admire your "Mastery Of Scraps" your quilts sing to me, they are art.

I dup thee "Scrap Queen" of Blogland!

lots of hugs,
lyn